More talkative than his mother, more concerned about making his voice heard: here are some striking statements from Charles, who became king with the death of his mother Queen Elizabeth II.
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1. “Kilted Colditz”
This is how he evoked the school of Gordonstoun, where he spent difficult years, comparing the Scottish boarding school to the castle transformed into a prison camp by the Nazis.
2. “Cherry brandy”
14-year-old Charles walks into a pub and feels compelled to order a drink, causing a scandal because he was not old enough to do so.
3. “Whatever ‘in love’ means, yes. Everyone has their own interpretation.”
To the question of whether he is in love with Diana Spencer during their interview in 1981, for their engagement.
4. “I’m absolutely thrilled and frankly amazed that Diana is ready to take me” as her husband.
The sentence he said just before.
5. “Like a monstrous boil on the face of a dear, stylish friend.”
His opinion was decided in 1984 on a proposal to extend the National Gallery.
6. “There isn’t really a set job or role. You have to do to some extent what you think is right. It would be quite easy to do nothing. The important thing is to serve this country and its people and the Commonwealth.”
Charles talks about his role during an interview given with Diana in 1985.
7. “I’m sure it must be absolute hell living with an old thing like me!”
During the same interview.
8. “I just came to talk to the plants, really”, “it’s very important to talk to them. They respond, I find.
The Prince talking about gardening during a television interview in 1986.
9. “Yes. Until things were irretrievably broken, we both tried.”
In 1994, questioned about his loyalty to Diana.
10. “Mrs. Parker Bowles is a great friend…and will continue to be a friend for a very long time.”
During the same interview, where he spoke for the first time about the disintegration of his marriage.
11. “I’m not very good at a learned monkey.”
Posing in 1994 in front of photographers.
12. “Terrible old wax figures.”
Leaked remarks about the Chinese delegation during the handover of Hong Kong in 1997.
13. “I especially hope that illegal fishing for Patagonian toothfish will be at the top of your priority list.”
Letter to government address from 2004, revealed in 2015 when the ‘black spider’ was published, handwritten letters addressed to various government departments under Tony Blair, so named because of Prince Charles’ spider-legged handwriting .
14. “I can’t stand this man. He’s so awful, really.”
About the BBC’s royal correspondent, caught on a microphone, during a reluctantly granted photoshoot with his two sons before a skiing holiday in 2005, ahead of his wedding to Camilla.
15. “We’ll see, won’t we? That could be.”
When asked if Camilla would become queen, on American television in 2010.
16. “I’ve had my fill of being called an English bastard (Pommie bastard, Australian derogatory expression for the British, Editor’s note), I can assure you of that. Look what it did to me. But, thank God, it was good for the character. If you want to build character, go to Australia.”
In 2011 on his year of schooling spent in the State of Victoria, in the south of Australia.
17. “Your Majesty, Mom.”
Closing speech at the Diamond Jubilee Concert in 2012, to cheers.
18. “I don’t want to be faced with my future grandkids saying ‘why didn’t you do anything?'”
In 2013 on the environment.
19. “We’re literally out of time”
In front of world leaders at COP26 in Glasgow in November 2021